Piracy General

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Is there a good place to get .apks of Android games that doesn't send my info to Russia or is it generally not worth the risk? I don't have a lot of experience with Android piracy.
I find often getting the free version and then using lucky patcher to unlock it is better than getting a random apk that someone has already had a go at patching.
 

Basic Adventure and Strategy Game Design for the Apple?​

I haven't been able to find that one anywhere and I've seen people asking $300+ for a used copy on amazon.
Search Annas by author name, hit metadata tab where the extra sketchy ones are.

Screenshot 2025-09-30 at 07-11-47 Jim Menick - Search -[...].webp
 
Hi, I'm retarded. ScreamAPI and other DLC injectors aren't supposed to have trojans in them, are they? I'm half-sure that they're supposed to have something similar, because how else would unlocking the DLC work, but I'm too paranoid to just trust my gut and ignore VirustTotal turning up this.
1759240941851.webp
For reference: I downloaded this directly from the author's github, from the newest release. No clue if that makes any difference.
 
Hi, I'm retarded. ScreamAPI and other DLC injectors aren't supposed to have trojans in them, are they? I'm half-sure that they're supposed to have something similar, because how else would unlocking the DLC work, but I'm too paranoid to just trust my gut and ignore VirustTotal turning up this.
View attachment 7980544
For reference: I downloaded this directly from the author's github, from the newest release. No clue if that makes any difference.
Did you read the readme? Or the thread on cs?
False positive. Many cracks get flagged. I've never used it (ewww epic), but I've used CreamAPI.

You AV is simply trying to tell you "Piracy is (supposed to be) bad mmmmkay?"

Still, always be wary and research, its better to be safe than sorry and all.
 
Did you read the readme? Or the thread on cs?
False positive. Many cracks get flagged. I've never used it (ewww epic), but I've used CreamAPI.

You AV is simply trying to tell you "Piracy is (supposed to be) bad mmmmkay?"

Still, always be wary and research, its better to be safe than sorry and all.
I did, though the search returned no results for "antivirus" or "trojan" so I figured the thread just hadn't touched on the topic after manually scrolling through a few pages.

The readme I went over twice. I probably just missed it. I'm kind of a mess right now, so that's probably why.

I'll just hope it's a false positive and continue on. I refuse to give Epic any money, but I also don't want my free games from there stuck without DLC forever. Especially since one of those games has DLC I already paid for elsewhere, but I lost the account that paid for said DLC and can't get it back anymore.
 
I'll just hope it's a false positive and continue on. I refuse to give Epic any money, but I also don't want my free games from there stuck without DLC forever. Especially since one of those games has DLC I already paid for elsewhere, but I lost the account that paid for said DLC and can't get it back anymore.
i get you are being safe and shieet but every pirate worth his salt learns to trust cs.rin.ru, if it's not there then it's a 50% danger chance, if it's there then it's a 1% danger chance.
cs.rin.ru keeps active because it mainly doesn't really share cracking, all of their shit is sort of their code and the RU section of the forum which is somewhat similar to the EN one is hosted on russia too so none of the cuckright shit can affect them.
 
I did, though the search returned no results for "antivirus" or "trojan" so I figured the thread just hadn't touched on the topic after manually scrolling through a few pages.

The readme I went over twice. I probably just missed it. I'm kind of a mess right now, so that's probably why.

I'll just hope it's a false positive and continue on. I refuse to give Epic any money, but I also don't want my free games from there stuck without DLC forever. Especially since one of those games has DLC I already paid for elsewhere, but I lost the account that paid for said DLC and can't get it back anymore.
You got it from the authors github, you're fine. If you'd just downloaded from a google search you'd likely get one of those (S)CreamAPI installers packed with malware, but you'll be fine. Always get your cracks from the authors github if you can, for sure. That is why I said stay wary. The thread is likely not full of false positive reports because most pirates consider this common knowledge...

The cs forums have a faq thread that touches on this, so I'll post an excerpt:

Q(A04): My anti-virus claims that a file I downloaded from here is malicious and I'm sure I downloaded the correct file. How do I know if the file is actually dangerous?
  • A: It's good to be cautious, but be aware that anti-virus programs (AVs) and sites like virustotal.com (VT) often flag files that are not actually malicious, just like they do not always detect malicious files. This is because they use heuristics to determine if a file is similar to other observed malware in some way.If the file is flagged as potentially malicious on VT by a single or very few anti-virus products or if the threat labels that are listed contain broad terms like "Generic", "Malware", "Malicious" or "BehavesLike", it is more likely (but of course not guaranteed!) that you are looking at a false positive. This is because cracks, emulators and patchers often use techniques to modify files or change the behaviour of running processes that are also used by malware. Anti-virus software does not know that we want cracks and patchers to make those changes. Additionally, some AVs flag files that they know to be warez-related (e.g. "Riskware.Game.Patcher").Releases by scene groups (for example CODEX, PLAZA, FLT, CPY, HOODLUM, SKIDROW, RELOADED, DARKSiDERS, SiMPLEX) have to follow certain scene rules, so they are under special scrutiny and will be removed ("nuked") if they violate one. So it's highly unlikely that an original scene release which includes malicious files goes unnoticed. However, scene releases downloaded from questionable sites can still contain malware that was added by the people who uploaded them.In general, you need to take into account how trustworthy the source of the file is. Always get your files from reputable contributors on this forum or other recommended sites and check if other people have already discussed the safety of the file or if the person who uploaded it has commented on false positives. If you are unsure about the source, delete the file and download an alternative from a source you trust.If you are still unsure about a file's safety, ask in the topic where you found it or in a related game topic. Provide as much information as possible (description of the file and where you got it from, VT results, screenshots), be polite and do not make premature accusations.
 
i get you are being safe and shieet but every pirate worth his salt learns to trust cs.rin.ru, if it's not there then it's a 50% danger chance, if it's there then it's a 1% danger chance.
cs.rin.ru keeps active because it mainly doesn't really share cracking, all of their shit is sort of their code and the RU section of the forum which is somewhat similar to the EN one is hosted on russia too so none of the cuckright shit can affect them.
That’s been their track record so far, yeah. This is just new territory for me, and I’m especially paranoid right now, so I figured I may as well ask in advance. Thank you both for being quick and informative with your replies.
 
That’s been their track record so far, yeah. This is just new territory for me, and I’m especially paranoid right now, so I figured I may as well ask in advance. Thank you both for being quick and informative with your replies.
We were all new pirates, once. And its probably much more confusing/intimidating today than it was 30+ years ago when I started dipping my toes.
 
its probably much more confusing/intimidating today than it was 30+ years ago when I started dipping my toes.

I don't know about confusing considering how many good text and video resources there are to explain certain things and to provide sources these days. To be fair there is a lot more software you can dick around with to automate things though.

Intimidating I would agree yeah. I honestly don't think piracy is that (if any) much dangerous now that it has been over the last couple decades...? What has happened though is various concerned parties spreading the narrative over those decades that 'oh it's so bad and scary and you'll get viruses that'll steal all your money and whore out your mother and make your PC explode'. Which creates an intimidating atmosphere for those who don't have that prior experience and have an understanding of what is acceptable levels of risk to be taking.
 
Intimidating I would agree yeah. I honestly don't think piracy is that (if any) much dangerous now that it has been over the last couple decades...?
I don’t know, seems a lot more complex than it was when I started, which would be with dialup warez BBSs at a hot 14.4kbps. My parents beat my ass when they got that phone bill. lol good times.
 
This will likely be my last post about Amazon Fire, because that ecosystem is as dead as a doornail.

AFTVnews: Amazon announces Fire TV Stick 4K Select — The first non-Android Fire TV running Vega OS (archive)
The Fire TV Stick 4K Select has only 1GB of RAM, which is a first for any 4K Fire TV model. The 1st-gen Fire TV Stick 4K had 1.5GB of RAM, and the current 2nd-gen model has 2GB. By running Vega OS instead of Android, the 4K Select doesn’t have as much memory overhead as the Android-based Fire TVs, which is how it can get away with needing less RAM.

They used their more efficient, locked down OS to reduce the specs and save consoomers $5-10 bucks.

AFTVnews: Amazon launches Vega OS for Fire TV — Here’s how it affects new & old Fire TVs, apps, and sideloading (archive)
Amazon has said that “only apps from the Amazon Appstore are available for download” on the new Vega OS-based Fire TV Stick 4K Select. This likely means that an “Install from unknown sources” option will not be present on Vega OS devices, so apps like my Downloader app will not be able to sideload anything on a Vega OS device, even if I created a Vega OS version of Downloader.

It will be possible to sideload apps onto a Vega OS Fire TV device through a command line interface similar to Android’s ADB utility. Vega OS-based Fire TVs will have Developer Options in the “My Fire TV” settings menu, and you will be able to enable a Developer Mode that allows app sideloading from a computer through a USB connection. Unlike Fire OS-based Fire TVs, enabling Developer Mode in Vega OS will require the device to reboot each time.

That sounds more hackable than expected, just likelier to be neglected by the community from ditching Android and moving to some form of web app. Also more of a pain to work with than Downloader was.

AFTVnews: Comparison specs of the Fire TV Stick 4K Select with the Stick HD, Stick 4K, Stick 4K Max, and Fire TV Cube (archive)

Devices with 8 GB of internal storage are also DOA in 2025, and lol at MicroUSB. The only thing potentially positive is the Mali-G310 V2 GPU.
 
If you are going to pirate Ghost Recon Wildlands, get the KaOs Krew repack. They actually provide the updated Empress crack that runs on Win 11. Fitgirl and Dodi repacks don't work (one dodi repack works but it's some really old version).
 
If you are going to pirate Ghost Recon Wildlands, get the KaOs Krew repack. They actually provide the updated Empress crack that runs on Win 11. Fitgirl and Dodi repacks don't work (one dodi repack works but it's some really old version).
Does it still have the annoying bug with eating controller inputs on PC? That made it unplayable for me the last time I tried it out. I think I had it on GoyemPass or something.
 
TorrentFreak: Sports Piracy Operator Goes from Jail to Getting Hired by a Tech Unicorn in a Month (archive)
Police started hammering on Warles’ door around 07:45 on the morning of August 20. After he was arrested and handcuffed, a lawyer from LaLiga bought Warles’ some yogurt before he was sent to the police station in Paraná.

The next day, Warles was transferred to the San Isidro Investigations headquarters with a police escort. “It was like they were bringing Pablo Escobar,” Warles notes, referring to the infamous drug lord.

The pirate site operator ended up in a cell with people accused of crimes that didn’t take place behind a keyboard. While that certainly made an impression, it wasn’t all that bad.

“I was there for a day and a half with murderers, thieves… But they were very kind to me. To cheer me up, they would say, ‘Another guy like you came in and got out after three hours’,” Warles said.
 
I don't have any particularly insightful comment but I enjoy my realdrebrid setup with stremio. Don't have to worry about ratio's and most of what I want is movies or shows. If I want a local copy it's easy to get. The only downside is that there is a million different ways to set it up so it's hard to discern the "best" way.
 
I don't have any particularly insightful comment but I enjoy my realdrebrid setup with stremio. Don't have to worry about ratio's and most of what I want is movies or shows. If I want a local copy it's easy to get. The only downside is that there is a million different ways to set it up so it's hard to discern the "best" way.
Torrientio + RD seems to be the easiest and most popular way. But there was a period recently where Torrentio wasn't working properly and took a few weeks to fix, so it's probably best to have some backups like Comet in case it happens again.
 
TorrentFreak: MPA Highlights Rapidly Expanding “Hydra Sites” as an Emerging Piracy Problem (archive)
In addition to pirate sites and services, the MPA’s submission highlights third-party intermediaries, including hosting providers and domain name registries. These are not the source of any piracy activity but play a crucial role in keeping services afloat, the anti-piracy group argues.

For example, MPA writes that the .CC, .IO, .TV, .RU, SU, .SX, and .TO domain registries continue to provide their services to pirate sites despite repeated notification and outreach.

“A registry—directly or via its contractual relationship with its registrars—can withdraw or disable domain names used by websites engaged in massive copyright infringement,” MPA clarifies.

In the hosting category, DDos-Guard, Private Layer, Squitter, Veesp, and Virtual Systems are mentioned. The Belize company Crypto Servers is added as a newcomer this year, with MPA mentioning that it caters to sites that seek anonymity and takedown resistance.
 

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